The Great Worm Lich

Unfortunately, the miracle of a frog turning into prince did not happen.

Putting on the loose Lee brand jeans, he looked like he stole the pants. Meanwhile, the top that was slightly fitting did not only failed to create a unique layering with his jeans, on the contrary, but it also looked cheap.

One had to say that his ability to give an expensive, branded clothes with a heavy villager vibe was a very rare quality of him.

However, in Lili’s eyes, her son that was lost and found was very handsome and cute no matter what he was wearing.

“You look good, baby. Let’s go.”

Zhang Lisheng was just a young man from a mountain village. Naturally, he could not differentiate between ugly and pretty. He nodded and followed Lili’s pace next to her while carrying his wizard worm in his hands. They then walked out of the hotel.

Along the way, many guests and hotel staff glanced a few times at Zhang Lisheng intentionally and unintentionally whose attire did not fit and holding a big toad. However, nobody cared too much about him, since it was an impetuous era where people would be called acting out of art when they roamed the streets naked.

The passport photo’s international prevailing regulation was no doubt the two-inches photo with no headgears on a white or blue background.

Lili brought Zhang Lisheng to the photography studio called the ‘Beautiful Life’ that the hotel staff recommended. They paid the price for artistic photos but only took over twenty boring mugshots.

However, there were minor differences between photos. It took her a long time to discuss with the photographer in front of the computer and eventually picked one and sent it to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu.

The photographer who took Zhang Lisheng’s picture was a well-dressed lady whose age could not be determined easily.

She had given her young customer who had been quiet, a durable folk-style backpack with ‘Beautiful Life’ printed enthusiastically when Lili had just decided to get a perfect passport photo for her son paying a high price. Now Mountoad, which was in Zhang Lisheng’s hands had a place to stay.

Apart from that, when Lili and Zhang Lisheng were leaving, she said with gratitude, “Lili, I’ve always thought that we Chinese moms are the moms who love our children the most in the world.”

“But judging at such little thing like taking a passport photo, I realized that you love your child more than I do.”

“It seems like the rumor of you Americans getting rid of your children and throwing them into the society without asking about them anymore when they’re 18 isn’t true.”

What the lady said unintentionally triggered Lili’s sensitivity. She had a major change in expression and said loudly, “Ms. Zhao, those women who would get rid of their children for no reason won’t appear in America but only in Mars.”

“Thanks for your service, goodbye.” She walked out of the photography studio while holding Zhang Lisheng’s hand.

Ms. Zhao was left shocked and could not snap out of being lost for a long time.

There were people walking around the streets. After walking around purposelessly for a while, Lili had finally calmed down her emotion and recovered to her gentle tone while she asked Zhang Lisheng, “Baby, we’re done with the serious matter.”

“Now should we look for a tour guide, or should we go online and see what’s fun in Chengdu on our own?”

“I－ I don’t know anything about this.”

“My child, it’s okay that you’ve no idea about this, but you shouldn’t be afraid to choose.”

“Tell mother, should we look for a tour guide or tour on our own?”

Zhang Lisheng opened his mouth wide and all of the sudden, he saw a bus passed by, which written with ‘A warm congratulations to the State Administration for Religious Affairs Annual Meeting Social Sciences and Religion Seminar held at the Chengdu Qingyang Palace’ on it.

“Can we go to Qingyang Palace? We’ll go on our own?” He slipped his tongue and said that.

“Of course we can, baby. Let’s go now.” Lili replied happily, after hearing her son made a decision under her encouragement.

Qingyang Palace was the No. 1 attraction in Western Sichuan. It was located in the southwest suburbs, where its south was facing the Wuhou Temple and its east was looking at the Er Xian’an.

The Taoist palace was built in the Zhou Dynasty and flourished during the Shu Han regime. It was burnt down during the Uprising of the Five Barbarians and reconstructed during the Song Dynasty.

It was named Qingyang Temple, Qingyang Guan, and Xuanzhong Guan before. In the end, it was officially named Qingyang Palace. It was considered one of the oldest symbolisms of the penetration of Central Plain culture into the Bashu culture.

It was natural that the transportation was convenient at such a popular attraction. All they had to do was to look for a kind pedestrian to ask for direction. Zhang Lisheng and Lili arrived outside the Qingyang Palace after walking to the bus station, spent two yuan to ride on the bus and walked less than a mile.

The time was around 11 noon. The palace entrance was crowded under the warm sun.

There were many ‘local’ small businesses selling talismans, copper coins, peach wood sword replicas, exorcism bells, and other artifacts by laying red cloth on the ground. They were calling out loudly, in order to sell the stuff.

Looking up below the high stairs, the Qingyang Palace’s mountain gate was majestic where the cornices overlapped, dragons and tigers attached to the pillars. ‘Qingyang Palace’ in gold, was written on the horizontal inscribed board high in the middle.

Under the horizontal inscribed board were over ten religious figures who had just attended the State Administration for Religious Affairs Annual Meeting. They were wearing earthly clothing as they blended into the crowd. They were looking at the secular world condescendingly.

On the other hand, there was only a fat monk who was different from the rest and dressed in Kasaya, taking photos with the tourists that gathered around while chuckling.

Seeing the monk wearing a fat and unpleasant expression while taking photos with young female tourists, a young lady with pretty features but arched brows who looked heroic in sports attire not so distant, made fun of him while saying softly, “Senior sister, look at that ‘Master’ Shi Yongxin’s face.”

“He’s the vice president of the National Buddhist Society. I heard from others that the only scripture that he knew is ‘Amitabha’.”

“As a leader of the Shaolin Temple’s Chan Sect, it’s an absurd tale that has never happened before in the Chan Sect for him to be wearing a gold-patterned Kasaya while taking pictures with underage ladies wearing a mini skirt with his pervert face.”

An average-looking lady in red next to the lady with arched brows who embodied a quiet character while savoring the moment and free like a cloud smiled as she said, “Junior sister, you must know that the Chan Sect that you’re talking about had been swept by the Red Culture over thirty years ago. All of the monks in the entire temple had been secularized and scattered like birds and animals.”

“There were only three old monks left who are blind, deaf and handicapped as well as this Shi Yongxin, who looks like a pervert maintaining the Shaolin kinship for thousands of years.”

“The old monks couldn’t support themselves and Shi Yongxin who was only over ten years old at that time logged and dug potatoes to offer the Buddhist elders. Apart from that, he was being tortured and criticized by the Red Guards of the same age.”

“Even though a whole eight years have passed, every morning he would still face the west and chant ‘Amitabha’ for hundreds of times while kneeling.”

“Maybe it’s not that he’s dumb when he can only chant ‘Amitabha’, perhaps he could understand endless truth about Buddhism from the script alone.”

“I heard it’s his suggestion that this year’s annual meeting’s site is opened and sellers are allowed to set up stores to do business as they wish.”

“Although freeing himself from the worldly matters and maintaining personal integrity are good practices, an eminent monk who spread Dharma into the world with a free heart and great virtue was even more worthy of our respect.”

“Senior sister, I’ve got no idea about what kind of virtue he used to have, but I’ve always seen his news online now.”

“Is taking a couple of photos with others, gathering a few bald disciples who are capable of kungfu to perform at Las Vegas casino, helping these villagers who dominate the market by oppressing their peers to get the entitlement in selling fake goods, spreading Dharma?”

“It’s the age of technology where human rules. Even our Tian Taoist Abbey’s disciples are surfing from the internet now. Wouldn’t he consider to be spreading Dharma, if he managed to get tens of thousands of common people to have the slightest thought about Buddhism in them?” The lady in red sighed and said while forcing a smile.

The young lady with arched brows refused to give in, but she had nothing to counter back. Just when she was hesitating, all of the sudden, she saw Zhang Lisheng who was carrying a backpack walking up to the Qingyang Palace stairs.

To her, Zhang Lisheng who was a Rank-1 Wizard, was like a human-form monster with a dimmed, black fog surrounding him under the sun. Apart from that, the backpack on his back was conspicuous like black ink.

“Sen －Senior sister, there’s a wizard sneaking among the crowd and breaking into the Qingyang Palace in broad daylight.”

“This place is just one step away from the Zhuge Wuhou’s memorial, which is the ‘ancestral clearing land’ thousands of years ago. Nothing can justify this, even if this is the age of technology.”

“We should attack first, let me kill him…” The young lady with arched brows wore an excited expression on her face as she said softly with anticipation. She waved and shook her hand, then a purple talisman appeared.

“Stop, there are too many tourists here. We must be careful.” The lady in red stopped the young lady and advanced while looking serious.

As she spoke, the lady in red’s thin ears with faint blood vessels showing, shook lightly. Soon, she sighed in relief and said, “He’s not a Chinese like us. He speaks English, seems like a tourist who is traveling from overseas with his mother.”

“Since he’s a foreigner, then it has nothing to do with us.”

“He’s not Chinese like us? But － But why does his wizard power look incredibly pure? How could he be a foreigner…”

“There was a calvary who wandered into America unintentionally following the frozen ocean, during the Yuan Dynasty and gave birth to Red Indians. There were shamans who went into war following the army and that was how witchcraft was passed down.”

“Apart from that, the Haitian witch doctors in Africa are also implicated with Chinese witchcraft. Human is the most miraculous thing in the world, what’s impossible to happen?”

“But－But that person has a Sichuan people’s look…”

“The Americans have complicated the source of population, it’s possible to have witchcraft spreading irresponsibly.”

“It has always been a difficult task for a cultivator to come around, let alone a dedicated one. Don’t talk about those foreign gringos, our China’s authentic and famous sects are getting less picky these days.”

“Hehe, I never expected a senior sister to call somebody else a gringo.”

“Don’t make fun of my faulty choice of word. Junior sister, you must remember this carefully. The late wise man Zhuge Wuhou’s Art of War is known to the world. His history of killing hundreds of Miao Yi leaders thousands of years ago, killing thousands of people in the Yi Village and the fabrication of War of Pacification about the Miaowei leaders did not manage to eradicate the witchcraft in Western Sichuan mountains.”

“If the past wise man couldn’t do it, let alone us.”

“Don’t rush into things whenever you encounter something and come out with a conclusion easily. Otherwise, you’ll make a huge mistake and probably implicate our division. Especially when it’s the age of technology and the internet…”